There has been disclosed an image reading apparatus having a conveyor and a reading unit, in which the conveyor defines a conveyance path for conveying sheets, and the conveyance path includes an upper path, a lower path that is positioned on a lower side from the upper path, and a curved path that connects the upper path and the lower path. The conveyor conveys each sheet from the upper path to the lower path through the curved path. The reading unit reads an image of each sheet which is conveyed along the conveyance path by the conveyor.
The conveyor includes a chute member which forms a guide surface. The guide surface extends so as to be contactable with a first surface of the sheet facing the lower side in the upper path and facing the upper side in the lower path, thereby guiding the corresponding sheet in the conveyance path.
More specifically, the chute member includes a first chute member and a second chute member. The first chute member forms a first guide surface, which configures the guide surface and defines the upper path. The second chute member forms a second guide surface, which configures the guide surface and defines the lower path. The first chute member has a holding portion. The holding portion is a recess formed from the first guide surface toward the lower path side, and holds the reading unit.
In this image reading apparatus, the conveyor conveys each sheet from the upper path to the lower path through the curved path. When a sheet passes the upper path, the reading unit reads an image of the first side of the sheet.
However, in the above-described related-art image reading apparatus, since the first chute member having the holding portion forms the whole first guide surface, the first chute member is likely to be made large as a component. In general, in a manufacturing process, in a case of installing the reading unit in the holding portion, in order to prevent dust, fine particles, and the like from entering the vicinity of the reading units, work for mounting the reading units is performed in a clean room. In this case, as the size of components (first chute members) having holding portions increases, handling becomes complicated. For this reason, according to the related-art image reading apparatus, it may be feared that it will be difficult to efficiently perform work for mounting the reading unit in the holding portion of the first chute member in a clean room, and thus an improvement in productivity is difficult. On the other hand, in a case of installing the reading unit in the holding portion at a place which is not a clean room, there may be a problem in which dust, fine particles, and the like is likely to enter the vicinity of the reading unit, resulting in a decrease in reading quality.